Hari is a financial professional with more than 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry. Hari joined AAGI in January 2013, providing a solid financial management background, with expertise in budgeting & planning, management reporting, forecasting, mergers & acquisitions, treasury and cash management.

During his tenure with AAGI he has been responsible for strategic and financial planning, as well as, analyzing data to best serve the needs of AAGI and its business partners. As CFO, he will provide insight and analysis to support Tim Brugh, President of AAGI and other senior managers. Hari will advocate AAGI’s initiatives, while remaining an unbiased voice on the financial performance.

Tim Brugh said, “Hari’s continuous process improvement and resource allocation is a key factor in AAGI’s future. He has the unique ability to evaluate data and provide solutions to AAGI’s business and operations.”

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. – American Auto Guardian, Inc. (“AAGI”) is pleased to announce that Nicholas Angelides has joined its sales team as Central Regional Vice President.

Nick received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Economics from Florida Atlantic University. During college and after graduation, Nick worked at Nation Safe Driver, as an independent account executive, where he initiated and maintained relationships with agents and dealers.

Prior to joining AAGI, Nick was an owner/operator of his own tire inflation maintenance company. Nick developed the product, sourced manufacturers and supplies and then created marketing materials. He coordinated a marketing campaign and developed a distribution network. Nick managed all the day‐to‐day operations of that company. Nick will be responsible for developing and managing the central region of the United States for AAGI.

With large service providers paying out thousands of claims per month, claims fraud has always been an issue in the auto industry. “Unfortunately, so much of the public knows so little,” says George Krnich, vice president of claims and risk management, American Auto Guardian, Inc., “that it is often easy for a repair shop to tell them that there are repairs that they really don’t need.”

With the exception of the US Fidelis debacle, fraud is typically not an issue of large providers failing to pay out valid claims; rather, it most often lies with dealers, service departments and repair shops exaggerating claims. While the majority operates with integrity, there are always some who take advantage of the system and, according to those we spoke with, there are many ways in which they do so.

Steve Pearl, president, The Oak Group, says, “If fraud were the norm, no one would be in the underwriting business. Dealers who consciously commit fraud signify less than 1%, but the cost skews the losses.”

Providers we spoke with said they had never had a situation escalate to the point of actually having to bring charges against anyone for fraud. When fraud is suspected, common practice seems to be for the provider to first alert the agent and allow them to work with the dealer to resolve the issue. “If they work with us,” says Krnich, “then identifying the problem is the first step. The agent and dealer talk to the people involved. After that, the dealership may give us a discount on certain things as a means of restitution – to get their numbers down and so they look profitable again.”

Krnich listed several steps that are key to identifying and preventing fraud:

Properly train the claims adjustors

Invest in software and resources to quickly verify part pricing and labor times

Quality reporting software

Intensive training for the risk management personnel who dissect info and extrapolate data to properly analyze the dealers

Dave Robertson, executive director of the Association of Finance & Insurance Professionals, (AFIP), pointed out that it is not legal for a dealer to sell an extended warranty of any type; they can only sell service contracts and must refer to them as such. He believes that one of the best things a provider can do to guard against fraud is to create a situation where the dealer participates in the underwriting process, so if he controls his losses, he can make more money on the program. “I did that with my own program in the past. If I could get the dealer in bed with me – so to speak – then I wouldn’t have them reconditioning used cars on me.”

“No one wants to have the reputation as ‘the provider who sues their dealers,’” says Ganther, “Providers are in the claims management business and they have to manage claims in real time. They have to be willing to put up with [fraud] to a certain extent, so where do they pull the plug?

“The effect of the recent improving car market is 25-30% fewer dealers than a few years ago and more cars are being sold,” says Ganther, “Everyone is breathing a bit easier now. Dealers were fighting for their lives a few years ago. The temptation to use their service provider as a piggy bank is much less today than it was then.” Ganther says he recently spoke with the president of a large provider at NADA who said, “If you are not making money in this market, you need to be in another line of work.”

An Industry-Wide Watch List?

There are many ways fraud is dealt with, depending on the circumstances and severity. “Basically the claim would be denied and, in some instances, if there is an ongoing trend, the stores could be cancelled from the program, or they are added on to our [internal] watch list,” says Rhonda Chaplin, claims manager, NWAN.

Large providers may have their own internal “watch list” for dealerships and repair shops who seem a bit shady or are known to have been fraudulent, but how about the communication between providers with this information? On what level is it okay for them to share names of dirty dealers with another provider? According to Ganther, some years back there was talk of creating an industry wide list of fraud perpetrators, for the good of the industry. It sounded like a great idea at first, but ultimately, no one was willing to get his or her hands dirty by being responsible for contributing to or maintaining the list. There was also the question of the legality of it. And, once someone was on the list, what did they have to do to get off the list? Say for example there was a change in management. Nothing came of it in the end, but it is still a topic some consider worth talking about.

No doubt, fraud is a reality and all service providers have their own processes in place to deal with it. Certain companies, however, made it clear that it was not something they wanted to discuss. One company referred to their methods of dealing with fraud as “proprietary and confidential practices” and more than one company declined discussing the topic at all in an interview or even went as far as saying that fraud was not an issue for them. It seems providers could be afraid of losing their edge in catching fraudulent practices by revealing their methods to the public.

Ganther pointed out that when one provider finally drops a dealership for fraudulent practices, there is always another agent who will be right there willing to pick it up. “The agent has the incentive of getting commission and they may not have the exposure to the downside of working with a fraudulent dealer.” So, there is always a revolving door and the cycle continues.

Types and Detection

With the option of filing claims online, could the need for initial verbal communication with the service contract administrator eventually become a thing of the past? Would filing a claim online, as opposed to with a person over the phone make it easier to commit or get away with fraud because it is easier to lie to a computer than a person? The answer may not be what you expected.

Chaplin says she does not foresee this becoming a problem. “In our experience, the means in which the claim is started doesn’t have an impact on the validity of the claim itself. Typically we will still speak with the customer or repair facility at some point, prior to the claim being approved. Given the way that our process is designed, we see a higher volume of calls than we do fax or email claims. It tends to be more efficient for the facility. We are moving towards shifting the percentage towards a higher volume of electronic claims with new developments with our administration system. This should make it just as, if not more, efficient for the repair facility.”

Krnich, on the other hand, says that adjudicators are skilled in reading the subtle cues when speaking to someone over the phone, and picking up if something just does not sound right. While currently, all of their claims are handled over the phone, he said eliminating the personal contact could lend itself to eliminating that critical part of fraud detection. Currently, they only have a means for excessive wear and tear (EWT) claims to be filed online, and Krnich says he does not predict that changing anytime soon

Following up with a customer in an interview, in order to get an accurate recounting of events leading to the repair can be crucial in determining the details of a claim. Chaplin says that often, if you call a customer shortly after the claim in question was filed, then “the flood gates will open.” The customer likely has not had a chance to be “coached” or prompted by the repair facility, an advisor or technician and the customer just wants to get their vehicle repaired.

Chaplin said that while you hate to say you are looking for fraud, you always want to be mindful of it, looking at each claim from beginning to end, “Sometimes it is obvious, other times you have to dig a little deeper… If you ask all the questions and it turns out that the answers are right, then wonderful – you have done your due diligence and you can more on.”

Krnich agreed. He said often it is almost blatant. “Fraud can be detected when a repair facility or technician says the wrong things, or they try to charge for 10 hours of labor when a repair actually takes only 7 hours. They forget that we have the resources to know how long a repair takes.”

“There are just a few bad apples out there and the good people have to pay for what the bad people do,” added Pearl.

Common Scenarios

Fraud can run the gamut from a repair shop trying to get a few more dollars on a repair to larger, more costly trends within a dealership. One commonly seen scenario is a new vehicle owner bringing their vehicle to the repair shop, reporting a problem that occurred within days of entering the contract, or even on the way home from the dealer after purchasing a preowned vehicle. In these cases, the dealer who sold the vehicle might be committing fraud – especially if this is a pattern with newly purchased preowned vehicles. If the dealer was aware of a problem with the vehicle but purposefully did not make a needed repair prior to the sale, knowing it would be covered under the customer’s newly purchased service contract, they commit fraud. Some are as blatant as a dealer not properly reconditioning a vehicle but throwing in a limited warranty or service contract with the sale and telling the customer that it will cover a needed repair as soon as they purchase the vehicle. Situations of this nature tend to only be detected when they run in trends at a given dealership.

The easiest thing for an administrator to do is to cancel the dealer, according to Robertson, but if in many cases, if they work with the dealer on procedures on how to effectively use the program, an account can be salvaged, resulting is a reasonable claims level. “I once had a dealer who had extremely high claims, so I sent my representative out. They determined that the dealer did not have enough service advisors to adequately handle the customers. When customers would come in, instead of taking the time to assess the situation, they would just file a service contract claim. My rep suggested they hire a few more service advisors and in doing so, the claims frequency went down significantly and we salvaged the situation.”

Another common scenario occurs when someone has traded a vehicle in and they are no longer the owner. The service department could try to take advantage of the situation and file a claim on the vehicle, knowing that the customer covered by the contract is no longer the owner, but not reporting the sale, in order to get the repair paid for under the customer’s service contract.

Ganther noted a situation that is usually not detected until it shows up in the loss ratios. A disreputable dealer could sell and backdate service contracts in the service drive in order to cover a costly repair. The repair would then be post dated in order to comply with the terms of the contract. Also, he stated that service managers sometimes view a contract as an invitation to see what is covered, in addition to the repair a customer brought the vehicle in for. They tell the customer that they found and will take care of an additional problem. The customer usually does not mind, or may even be appreciative and the mechanic makes more money by charging for unnecessary repairs, knowing they will be covered by the service contract.

Our claims experts agreed that staying on top of things comes down to having good communication and detailed reporting. “Putting good processes in place, training associates on what to look for, doing customer interviews, asking additional questions and keeping your eyes open,” are all key according to Chaplin.

Chaplin added that monitoring trends in an important part of detecting fraud. “We look at trends with facilities – do they do an overabundance of a particular type of claim? Or maybe they have a lot of claims that are right out of the gate – claims within the first few days of contract entry. We look at things like a particular advisor or technician being involved regularly in a certain type of claim. My team is really good about noticing trends as they do several claims with a particular repair facility. We do loss ratios on a monthly basis. If anyone has a high loss ratio, we look at those a little bit closer and we can send out an inspector a little more often.”

Krnich described a similar process used by his company and noted that the type of vehicle a dealer sells will dictate their loss ratios to some degree. “We have software and other means in place to analyze what loss prevention ratios should be. If the ratio has typically been 70% then jumps to 95% one month, then we will begin monitoring them more closely. It could be fraud, or it could just be that they had two large claims that month that caused the change.

“If you are abusing the system,” Krnich concluded, “eventually over time, it will show.”

Schaumburg, IL—The Finance and Insurance (F&I) industry mourns the loss of Al Ranieri, Founder and Chairman of the Board of American Auto Guardian, Inc. (“AAGI”). Mr. Ranieri, who guided the company to its current leadership position, passed away on April 29, 2014.

“We have lost an industry pioneer, and our cornerstone who supports our hearts and spirits. But we will always ensure that Al’s firm belief in honesty, integrity and fairness remains alive at the core of our business,” says Tim Brugh, AAGI President.

A CPA and CPCU, Mr. Ranieri founded AAGI in 1997. His aim was to set a higher standard for the administration of vehicle service contracts and ancillary F&I products. His unwavering commitment to conducting business in an honest, ethical manner and mission to deliver superior products and personalized service continue to distinguish AAGI today. Prior to founding AAGI, Mr. Ranieri was a Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer at several insurance companies, and held more than 30 years of insurance expertise.

Mr. Ranieri is survived by his wife, two daughters and four grandchildren. Visitation will be held on Saturday, May 3 from 9:00am-1:00pm, followed by a 1:00pm service, at Ahlghrim Family Funeral Services, 415 S. Buesching Road, Lake Zurich, IL. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Michael J. Fox Foundation at michaeljfox.org.

The P&A Leadership Summit will return to the Paris Las Vegas Hotel, September 8–10, 2014. This will be the second year for the conference, since it grew out of the former VSCAC conference.

Designed for F&I administrators, senior managers, and anyone involved in the administration of F&I products, the show promises a broad offering of topics this year. Attendees can look forward to the show getting back to the roots of why it was first established – giving professionals a forum to discuss every aspect of F&I product administration and the issues that surround them.

The advisory board is on its way to being finalized and will be comprised of some of the industry’s most knowledgeable experts. David Trinder, CEO of F&I Administration Solutions will be chairing the board. The committee will be comprised of ten members. Confirmed to date are Mary A. Gant, senior vice president, Old Republic Insured Automotive Services, Inc.; Lori Hallissey, vice president operations and customer experience, Allstate Dealer Services; Dan Lievrouw, vice president of operations and IT, American Guardian Warranty Services, Inc.; George Krnich, vice president, claims & risk management, American Auto Guardian Inc.; Russell Ridley, director, information technology, Gulf States Financial Services Group; Brent Allen, president of StoneEagle; Marc Coulter, owner, M.C.I Inspections; and Mitch Rand, president, Warranty Inspection Services.

What can attendees look forward to this year? While planning is still in the early stages, the advisory board is excited at the prospect of developing sessions that will cover administration from top to bottom. Topics from evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of claims departments and call centers, to sessions on parts sourcing, inspections and much more are on the table with the goal of providing a complete picture of the state of today’s F&I product segment.

“I’m looking forward to working with our cumulative client base to find timely and pertinent topics for the conference,” commented Allen, “It is our hope that attendees will walk away feeling that they found great value, and that their time was well spent.”

Trinder said, “We want the summit to be a forum to discuss the core issues around managing costs and driving revenue in F&I. We are pleased at the level of industry knowledge and expertise represented by the board. There are so many industry experts who have agreed to serve on the board. With such a wealth of experience between them, I am really excited about getting started planning a fantastic show this year.”

Rand noted, “The importance of what happens after a service contract is sold and a customer claim has been filed should be a higher priority at the P&A Summit. I’m very excited to start talking about how alternative part providers and inspection companies play an important role in customer retention and overall customer satisfaction in our industry. Combine this with the advanced technology and information that we can make available to our clients, and I’m confident we will have some very important discussions.”

Gant, who formerly served on the advisory board for the Vehicle Service Contracts Administrators Conference (VSCAC) said she is looking forward to the P&A leadership summit and being a part of the planning. “It is a great place to network with other professionals on current topics that affect our industry,” commented Gant. She brings a unique understanding of the underwriting process as well as a seasoned perspective of accounting and administrative issues to the advisory board. She expects for the session topics to address the most relevant issues present in the industry today.

“As a committee,” said Krnich, “we want to provide a comprehensive overview of topics applicable to administrative challenges in F&I. We will be looking at sessions that focus on evaluating the effectiveness of your claims department. We will also discuss customer service skills, communication skills and call center efficiency as planning gets underway. It will be interesting to see what other aspects of the industry arise once we start discussions.”

Lievrouw agreed and added, “I am looking forward to talking about customer service and claims handling service level standards.”

“I am excited and honored to be on the board this year,” says Coulter, “The warranty companies’ are asking for consistency and the only way to do this is by having an industry standard for training. This is all we have ever done at my company and I feel like we have written the book on how to do inspections. The more we can train people in a consistent manner that meets industry standards, the more smoothly the whole system is going to work. I really look forward to exploring this topic further with the board as we plan sessions for the fall.”

The P&A Leadership Summit is a joint production between P&A magazine and F&I and Showroom magazine. Formerly known as the VSCAC, P&A Leadership Summit was renamed to reflect a renewed focus on the high-level issues facing the auto finance industry today.

Topics last year included sessions on technology, an all-star panel of agents who explored current issues and hot topics in the industry, and a presentation on preserving competition in auto financing given by David Wescott, chairman, NADA.

Scott Eisenberg, founder and managing partner, Amherst Partners spoke on the U.S. Fidelis debacle in his presentation, “U.S. Fidelis: Lessons Learned from the Inside.” Having been assigned by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to steer U.S. Fidelis through bankruptcy, Eisenberg gave an insiders account of this history-making case. In his presentation, he shed light on what led to the collapse of the company and the eventual imprisonment of its owners. Eisenburg explained why no one predicted the downfall of U.S. Fidelis and the impact it had on the service-contract industry. Attendees learned how not to make the same mistakes in this riveting presentation.

Another session favorite in 2013 was the keynote address delivered by attorney Terry O’Loughlin, director of compliance, Reynolds and Reynolds. In his presentation, “Think Like a Regulator,” he demonstrated some of the pitfalls of documentation using real deal jackets. Also discussed were simple, effective processes dealers could use to eliminate potentially fraudulent situations and the key areas regulators tend to focus on.

For more information about the P&A Leadership Summit 2014 visit www.pa-leadershipsummit.com or contact David Gesualdo via email or at 727-947-4027. Advance tickets are on sell now with discount early-bird rates available. The conference will take place September 8 – 10, 2014 at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel.

Until recently, there has only been one way to file a claim – make a call, talk to an agent, wait for approval – and it could be an tiresome process. Today, however, in the age of technology, companies are looking to increase customer satisfaction and save money by offering online options when filing claims.

By giving dealers and customers the option to process a claim online, providers and administrators hope to deliver a better experience by streamlining what can be a tedious process. When a successful online method can be established, not only does it free customers from the time restrictions of operating during traditional business hours, it also reduces administrative time and lowers operating expense for the company – even if the customer only begins the process online. And the ultimate goal of all providers is to deliver the best experience possible for the customer. To be able to do this while cutting administrative costs is giving everyone a reason to rethink the manual claims process.

The Challenges

One of the challenges providers and administrators face when implementing online claims is how to make the process easier and more efficient than the traditional method of picking up the phone and working with a representative.

Daniel Lievrouw, vice president of operations and IT, American Guardian Warranty Services, Inc., attributes this call center efficiency as one reason more dealers are not utilizing available online filing – “You can’t tell the dealer that they are going to save time, when they can call the 800 number and have the claim reported just as fast as they could type it. The only dealers who do use it are the ones who are already comfortable with the technology because they are accustomed to using the online process with the manufacturer.”

George Krnich, vice president of claims and risk management, American Auto Guardian, Inc. (AAGI) says even with email, people don’t want to wait for a response. If it isn’t instantaneous, the online process loses its advantage. “Our average speed to answer a call is 30 seconds and average call is under 3 minutes, so if we can’t make an online claim system faster and easier for the service writer, then they are just going to pick up the phone and call us… So we have to make it easier for them, or they aren’t going to utilize it.”

Lievrouw agreed, adding: If someone in the service lane simply can’t type well, but they know they can pick up the phone and in twenty to thirty seconds they can provide the information to someone on the other end of the phone, who can do all the typing for them and do it more quickly, then they would certainly choose to call, rather than use the online process.

Old habits tend to die hard. Overcoming human nature – the natural tendency to stick with what you know – seems to be another big challenge. Lievrouw explained that there isn’t anything preventing someone in the service lane from utilizing the ease and convenience of filing claims online, yet few dealers are utilizing this resource. “Technology can’t be the excuse anymore. Five years ago, computers in the service lane were outdated and there was always a reason. These days, dealers are spending money on the equipment, but people are so used to doing it the way that they’ve been doing it; it’s just habitual.”

Despite the number of dealers who are not yet taking advantage of online claims, Garret Lacour, CEO, RoadVantage, sees the industry moving rapidly towards paperless systems. “Increasing knowledge and comfort level is key to overcoming barriers to using new technology.” Providing thorough training in the use of the technology is what Lacour sees as the means to getting more dealers onboard. To accomplish this, and to get users comfortable, they offer training through webinars, online tutorials, and printed materials guiding users step-by-step through the process. Including the service drive in training is also a big component in getting everyone to embrace these offerings, says Lacour. Not to mention the obvious benefits online claim reporting offers customers.

Another challenge providers and administrators face with online claims is the issue of privacy. In order for a claim to be processed online, service writers need to access secure information. They must have a means to securely look up information on the service contract – to determine coverage, and to determine the contract has not expired. There have to be the proper safeguards in place so that protected customer information isn’t accidentally given out. If a company is SSAE16 Type II certified, they are audited by an independent auditor on their methods of safeguarding customer information, as well as their claim adjudication policies and procedures. They must show that they meet strict requirements in this area. It is a labor intensive and time consuming process.

Krnich, whose company currently holds the SSAE16 certification, explains, “They dictate how you can adjudicate the claims. The problem is, we can’t have John Q. Public make up a name or some VIN number and have it populate the entire website with that information.”

Finding a way to integrate with the DMS, to prevent service writers from having to repopulate screen after screen with customer information, would be ideal, according to Krnich. It is something he says AAGI has been looking at for about a year. All parties would benefit if there was a way to have information pushed directly from the DMS and have it interact with our system to auto-populate a claim, he explained. You could then have an autoreply containing the approval number and an amount sent directly back to the customer. Currently, Krnich says, it is often easier for a service writer to pick up the phone, than to have to reenter all this information in a separate portal.

In the Future…

“As online claims become increasingly part of the status quo at dealerships, the industry is headed toward the one-step process, in which the service writer receives an instantaneous response with approval or adjudication status – so the service writer knows instantly what the next steps are. This one-step process will have a dramatic impact on customer service,” says Lacour, “The resulting benefits – quicker claims cycle times, faster payouts and the ability to check claims status without calling anyone – are tangible, and enable the service writer to focus on what’s most important: the customer experience.”

Customer preference will continue to play a part in the equation, as well. There will always be people who simply prefer dealing with a person on the phone, regardless of how easy or efficient online claims become in the future.

For this reason, Krnich says, “I don’t see [online claims] completely replacing the normal claim process, where you call in and talk to a rep, but it certainly has to be there as an option in the way to better serve our customers.”

Lacour, whose company is already using online claims for their complete line of ancillary products, says that despite the ease and convenience provided by online claims, they understand that change takes time. Their dealers know that they can still call or report claims through traditional channels – by picking up the phone. “While online service offers many benefits, it is still just one means to an end. At the end of the day, the most important aspect is the customer experience.”

While ancillary products may lend themselves more easily to the transition towards online claims, vehicle service contracts (VSC) are another story. With more complicated repairs, instantaneous approval may not be so easy to come by. These larger, more involved claims are typically still handled in the same manner they have been dealt with for years. So is the extent one offers online claims correlated with the type of products they offer?

Lievrouw, whose company provides both types of coverage, says they are definitely related. “It takes a technician to diagnose today’s new cars. Its not like the old days where you’ve got a carburetor, eight spark plugs and a battery, and that’s it. Now everything is computer controlled. The person in their garage can’t diagnose things like they could in the past. But when it comes to the appearance protection products, the customer can do that. They can tell you about a dent in the driver door, and describe that it is the size of a quarter.” In fact, he says, they can do it so easily with the tools they provide, he doesn’t know why anyone wouldn’t use the technology. “From a consumer’s standpoint, there is nothing more frustrating than calling an insurance company and waiting on hold. If I can jump on my smart phone and file the claim then and there, and receive a response telling me someone is going to be here at a given date and time to fix a dent in my car, and even provide the repairman’s name – why would you not do that?”

So what does the future hold for claims processing? With most companies already offering some form of online claims processing to customers, online claims are sure to become more widespread as time passes. Our experts agree that you can expect to see more offerings in the upcoming years, as companies are already targeting online claims as an area in which they want to move forward. Companies only offering one type of claim online now will likely have many more areas under their belt in the next year or two, such as mechanical claims and GAP. Others, who are already fully immersed in online claims, hope to continue to improve speed and efficiency, and to increase user comfort with the entire process. This will be accomplished through training and by staying on top of the latest technology, in order to continue making the process as user friendly as possible.

Krnich describes the auto industry as a copy cat industry – once someone does something and others see the benefits, everyone else adapts to take similar advantage of the idea. He thinks that once people see the benefits of providing online claims, many more will jump onboard. “Basically, once you lay the tracks, I think everybody is going to be driving the train.”